Maggie Locascio and the brother-in-law: Oct. 30, 2001
If the twentieth century in Coral Gables had a bloody
beginning with the murder of Dora Suggs, so too did the twenty-first century.
On October 30, 2001, just before Halloween, Maggie
Locascio drove her Mercedes into the garage of her home at 2806 Granada Blvd.,
opposite the DeSoto Plaza fountain and just a few blocks from “Fatty” Walsh’s
Biltmore Hotel. Returning home with a new hairstyle and a fresh manicure, she
was about to start a whole new phase in her life. The following day, she was
due to appear in court to end her marriage of 28 years. As part of the divorce
settlement, the court would award her fifty-percent of her husband’s assets;
however, being a CPA, Maggie knew that her husband, Edward Sr, had declared
only a small portion of his vast fortune. In court, the following day, she was
scheduled to reveal to the judge where all the other millions were hidden.
Unfortunately, she never made it to court.
Her dead body was found sprawled on the kitchen floor.
Her head had been brutally bludgeoned, and her body badly kicked and repeatedly
stabbed. There was blood everywhere. Her husband lived in a condo on Miami
Beach and the security cameras showed him popping out of his condo for no more
than a few moments throughout the day and night of the murder. His alibi could
not be more solid and the following day, in court, he demanded that the divorce
proceedings be dismissed and all his assets unfrozen.
Eventually, blood samples, fingerprints, DNA swabs and a
bag full of evidence proved that the murder was committed by Edward’s
estranged, younger brother Michael who lived in Charlotte N.C., was unemployed
and addicted to pills. The two brothers had not made contact for several years.
But then, in the six weeks prior to the murder, they exchanged thirty-nine
phone conversations. The condo security camera that proved Edward’s alibi, also
showed his blood-spattered brother, Michael, visiting him just two hours after
the murder.
Michael was quickly arrested, found guilty and sentenced
to life in prison. Despite constant pressure on the authorities from his son,
Edward Jr., it was many years later that Edward Sr. was finally charged as
co-conspirator and mastermind of the murder. The evidence was entirely
circumstantial; the trial was lengthy and included one of those ‘only-in-Miami’
moments when it was revealed that the lead detective had been sleeping with one
of the major witnesses. Despite the lack of a smoking gun, Edward Locascio Sr.
was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced, like his brother,
to life in prison.
Years later, in a prison interview, Edward Sr. argued that
he and his brother had been framed by his own twenty-year-old son, Edward Jr.
who would now inherit the mansion on Granada Blvd. as well as all the family
millions. For fourteen years following the murder, the house remained empty
until the court recently ordered it sold at auction. It is currently in the
process of being restored and the blood stains finally removed.
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